<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>"Bird" by heckinmeka</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26126365">"Bird"</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/heckinmeka/pseuds/heckinmeka'>heckinmeka</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Guild Wars 2 (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Necromancy, Possession</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 08:53:31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>718</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26126365</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/heckinmeka/pseuds/heckinmeka</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Llaryen, a necromancer-turned-revenant of the Nightmare Court, reminisces on the past he was forced to leave behind.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>"Bird"</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Originally posted 2019-08-26, another crossposted Tumblr refugee. Another randomizer exercise as well - random one-word prompt, random character, shuffled game OST for ambience. This one's ambience track is "The World And All Its Lessons" from the Horizon Zero Dawn OST.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>
    
  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Weary eyes open on a dimming sky, a bird circling lazily overhead. He squints as the last vestiges of daylight hit his eyes, lays an arm across his face, and sighs.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Echoes of a voice come to him, shimmering up through the haze of exhaustion like a mirage. The faint remnants of laughter make him wince, remembering a happiness long past, and a profound sadness recently gained. He tries to shake it off one more time, but it won’t leave him. </span>
  <em>
    <span>She </span>
  </em>
  <span>won’t.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>She doesn’t know you anymore.</span>
  </em>
  <span> He lowers his arm from his eyes and lets his head loll to the side. A few steps away sits one of his last remaining minions, unnaturally still but undoubtedly animated. Even though its eye sockets are empty, he can feel its judging gaze. It never used to have that before.</span>
</p><p><em><span>Stop moping around, Leafhead. </span></em><span>It insists, and rises. </span><em><span>We’ve got more important things to do. Well, mostly </span></em><b><em>you </em></b><em><span>do</span></em> <em><span>given the situation, but still. Chop chop.</span></em></p><p>
  <span>He lets out a long slow breath and turns his gaze skyward again. It never used to be so chatty, either. Through the gaps in the branches he can still make out the silhouette of the bird, its wings barely moving as it spirals in a warm jungle updraft.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She’d always wanted to ride an airship, he recalls. Not to go anywhere specific, just to travel. To look down on the little slice of the world they called home and realize how small it really was. To look out upon an infinite horizon and realize just how much </span>
  <em>
    <span>more </span>
  </em>
  <span>was out there for them to discover, should they choose to seize it. He wonders if she still has that dream - did she ever see those airships? Perhaps joined that roving group of humans they’d heard about who lived in the sky, touching down only to trade with the lowly ground-bound populace? She would be happy there, he thinks. It would be perfect for her. Would’ve been perfect for both of them, before…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>An impatient tap on his temple pulls him out of his reverie. Beside him, much closer now, the minion pulls back a tiny paw and continues staring him down. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I said</span>
  </em>
  <b>
    <em> stop moping</em>
  </b>
  <em>
    <span>. You dragged me into this mess for some godsforsaken reason, and I’m not going to sit here and watch you waste our time pining over someone who doesn’t even consider you alive anymore.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“I wasn’t-”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Don’t even start with that again. We’re getting up. </span>
  </em>
  <b>
    <em>Now</em>
  </b>
  <em>
    <span>. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>As if on cue, the minion’s body goes limp and crumples to the ground, a pile of rotted flesh once more. Knowing what’s coming and not feeling up to contesting it this time, he closes his eyes and breathes in deeply. A cold mist surrounds him, settling on him like a blanket and chilling him to the core. He lets himself drift in this state, feeling a gentle sway like ocean waves cradle him until his eyes snap open again with perfect focus.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>You really need to drop this whole necromancy thing and just let me handle this full-time, Stickboy. </span>
  </em>
  <span>He sits up, stretches his arms, rolls his head from side to side, and lets out the breath he’d been holding. </span>
  <em>
    <span>We both know you’d get nothing done without me.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>Llaryen</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” He protests quietly. “And it’s what I’m best at.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Any further arguments are cut short as he rises to his feet.</span>
  <em>
    <span> From where we’re standing I’d say </span>
  </em>
  <b>
    <em>this </em>
  </b>
  <em>
    <span>is what you’re best at now. </span>
  </em>
  <span>He pats an open palm on his chest, and feels that cold aura still radiating from somewhere deep inside. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Better get used to it. Now, let’s grab that little trash heap of a body you keep shoving me into and get out of here. Our Vengeful Lady Knight certainly wouldn’t like it if we were late, and we can’t have that now can we?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>He glares daggers into the little pile of meat as he scoops it up with one hand. “I suppose not.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Good. Let’s get moving, Twigfeet.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>The distant sound of a bird’s call steals his attention as he starts moving, and his eyes drift to the sky one last time. As the first stars start to blink into place in the twilight sky, the bird flaps its wings once, and vanishes into the darkness.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>